I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a special edition hardcover novella from Connie Willis published by Subterranean Press.

I've been a fan of the author for decades, and this piece, though only 88 pages, shines with her humor, sharp wit, and style.

I was always the Luddite who swore I'd never own an e-book reader. I adore libraries full of old books. When my university medical library was moving to new digs, I rehomed literally hundreds of the deaccessioned books and felt badly that there were, sadly, thousands more which I couldn't adopt. I now own several ebook readers (a pack of Kindles and a Kobo for bathtime reading), but I still love everything about books from the smell to the tactile joy and solidity of sitting down with a book.

Neil Gaiman says it so much better than I can (that's why he's a world famous author and I'm a professional labrat bionerd):

I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them.

The entire essay is available here( https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming ).

Beautiful dust jacket art by Jon Foster.

I received an early e-ARC of this book and while I did find an error (Great Fire of London was in 1666, not 1665; it's pretty obviously a typo), I assume it'll be corrected before release.

Love the author, enjoyed the novella very much.

Four stars.

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Connie Willis has a way of writing stories that engage us but more importantly that capture the complexity and conflict in defining moments and force us to resonate with their emotional impact. I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a call to feel, to be moved, to understand, even to act. It’s difficult for an author to capture such depth in a short work, but Ms. Willis succeeds. This parable of Ozymandias’ Bookstore probably means most to those of us who stand astride the bridge of change in this transitional generation with one foot planted on the side of our love for physical books and the other sole braced in our acceptance of the convenient, yet vulnerable world of ebooks.

Ms. Willis is true to form. As I read Met a Traveller in an Antique Land, I heard echoes of Willis’s other works: the despair from Lincoln’s Dreams, the hurried search through the maze-like corridors of Passage, the snatch-and-grab time-traveling of To Say Nothing of the Dog, and the tongue-in-cheek wit of Bellwether and Blued Moon.

If you’ve ever searched for a favorite book from your childhood to discover it’s disappeared from the shelves of libraries and bookstores, you can really relate to this story. I know I conducted such a search and it took years of sporadic searches through Amazon, Alibris, etc., to find a stained and battered copy. There’s currently one other copy of that book for sale on Amazon at the moment. It’s never been digitized; I guess it wasn’t popular enough. It’s sad to think that there are so few copies of it out there in the world.

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land by Connie Willis is about a man who gets lost in the rain and stumbles upon a place that looks like a rundown used bookstore in the middle of Manhattan. There’s a single worker at the front desk who allows him to look around. What the man soon discovers is that this isn’t an ordinary bookstore at all.

This is a novella that begs to be read in a single sitting. The plot itself is incredibly straightforward: A man explores a weird building of books. It doesn’t stray from that concept.

What I found interesting was how open-ended it was. Nothing about it is wrapped up. We meet our protagonist as he is lamenting amount the sameness of the Manhattan streets. He has just had an interview in which he argued that books weren’t dying but changing. The novella is about searching…constantly searching for things no one seems to know or have. Even in the opening, the man is searching for an umbrella that only one place is selling. Then, he searches for safety from the deluge.

The majority of the book is him spent searching the store, which is a lot bigger on the inside than it appears on the outside, going deep underground. There are books here he’s never even heard of, along with some from his childhood he’d almost forgotten about.

I liked the implication that the open ending brings: We are constantly searching for something…for that book we saw in passing at that one place that we can’t remember the name of. Was it on a .org site? What did I search for again? Did I venture into page 2 of the Google results? Maybe page 3? No, no. I think I saw it at that bookstore downtown on 4th street. Or maybe it was 17th street.

The book is subtle with its magic. At first glance, there is none. However, you might think twice while Cassie, one of the workers, brings you to the section labeled Fires.

IMATIAAL is driven by its themes of searching and loss. The writing is such that it drives the book forward; it’s a real page turner. However, I found the weakest point was with the characters themselves. They seem to be there just to fill the requirement of having them. Honestly, this is one of those rare instances I think a 2nd person POV would have enhanced the experience. The characters themselves were so backgrounded that I forgot about the majority of them, even though the novella is in first person. They weren’t poorly written; they just existed, which I found a little disappointing.

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is another book perfect for anyone looking for something simple and straightforward, yet with an under-layer of something bigger. Like the bookstore our protagonist finds himself in, there’s more to this book than meets the eye.

[I was provided an e-copy of this book from Subterranean Press via NetGalley. A limited edition version is set to be published by Subterranean Press in April 2018.]

I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land, by Connie Willis (Subterranean Press). This latest novella from SFWA Grand Master Connie Willis offers a new take on the “magical bookstore” story. Who among us hasn’t dreamed of wandering the aisles of the Library of Alexandria or discovering a manuscript of Shakespeare’s lost Cardenio? Or a store where we can find books so odd, so enchanting, that we can never return unchanged to our mundane lives? (Actually, one could argue that all bookstores and libraries do this.) One of my favorites is Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind, in which a boy is taken into a library and allowed to choose “his” book.
In her inimitable fashion, Willis draws us into a magical realm coexisting with the drab life of an author on a book tour in New York City. Tucked among the skyscraper office buildings, he stumbles upon a shop named, oddly, Ozymandias Books. Any student of high school English will recall the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Slowly the author is drawn into the store and its mysterious workings, discovering on its shelves more and more obscure works (including the aforementioned play attributed to Shakespeare). Even more puzzling is the way the books are arranged, not by author or subject but by the disaster that destroyed the last remaining copy…except the one he holds in his hands. (Nothing beside remains…)
I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land is a delicious treat for readers and collectors, and a love song to those who treasure books.

This is the coolest novella that I've read in a long time! It looks at the argument between print books and digital books. Books are written every single day. Throughout history, billions of books have slipped through the cracks, lost forever due to war and disaster. What if books weren't destroyed in wars? What if books weren't destroyed in massive fires or floods? This novella looks at all of those things and more.

Imagine being able to go to a store where all of the books ever written are sitting on its shelves. Imagine seeing books written by familiar authors that you didn't know existed because they were supposedly lost in tragic events.

Jim is in New York to shop a book based on his blog–Gone for Good–premised on the fact that being nostalgic for things that have disappeared is ridiculous. Jim misses an interview with a radio personality who defends print books. It starts raining and Jim ducks into an extraordinary bookshop. Once inside he discovers a massive amount of rare books.

While this novella is short, it packs a most powerful punch. It leaves you thinking about your book collection, and those books you discarded long ago. Where are those books? What happened to the books after you sold or donated them?

Jim is a solid lead character. The supporting cast keeps the reader interested. The dialogue feels real. I can't get this book out of my head. I will be thinking about it for a long time. It's that good, guys! It's magic! The cover is dope, too!

5/5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is what Willis is justly beloved for.: the all-too-true frustrations of feckless reality; the touch of the surreal that we wish we could reclaim, but can never quite manage; the dreamlike, kafkaesque quality of needing to do something, but never quite being able to get there. And the final twist of the screw that makes us wonder if the unnamed narrator is having a breakdown--or indeed had one much earlier and this is all a schizophrenic fugue.

_Traveler_ is a novella, and a one-trick pony, but a beautiful one. We can only hope that Willis can still produce the magic of _Doomsday Book_ or _Lincoln's Dreams_ or _Passage_. Connie, we love your stories and novellas, but we _need_ another full-length novel!

I really enjoyed this novella by Connie Willis - largely because of the questions it raises. What if the book you discard...or the book that was lost to a disaster/war...or the book deemed no longer needed in a library...or the book that was on the shelf when a bookstore closed its doors...is the last one of its kind in existence? Remember that favorite book you had as a kid? What if it went out of print and nobody has a copy of it anywhere? We think everything is at our fingertips with the advent of the digital age...but is it really?

Fascinating premise. What makes it resonate with me even more is that I am in the midst of a move across several states and (unfortunately) have had to reduce my book collection for space consideration. After reading this novella I wish I hadn't purged a single book...

I did wish there was more resolution in this story. There are a LOT of unanswered questions and the time in Ozymandias Books seemed to just be a list of natural and man made disasters that can befall books. I did enjoy the sprinkling of actual book-related disasters found throughout the text, but after a while it seemed like a list. I'd give this story 3 stars for the plot...4 stars for the thought-provoking subject.

Many thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

This book will forever have a special place in my heart because I was practically in tears by the end. Like our narrator, I kept thinking about the centuries' worth of books lost due to fire, water, time, war, accidents . . .

It's a never-ending list and the feel of clicking on a title you want and Amazon telling you it's out-of-print, not being able to find a digital copy, no sites or book retailers or warehouses able to order it - so many messages, so many fantastic works simply gone.

I could feel the desperate hope to which the narrator clung at the end of the book, that Ozymandias' was around somewhere, the panic that perhaps it was all just a too-vivid dream, the pain in your soul that screamed for there to truly be a safe haven where books and papers went so they didn't fade into obscurity.

5/5 stars! This book is astounding! Every book-lover should give it a chance.

3.5 stars, rounded up because of Booklove.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

It's an odd thing to begin a review with a sonnet, but therein, you get insight into the theme of this book: things that are lost, forgotten by time. Willis offers us a story about books and bookstores and searching for things you've lost. This novella is built on an interesting kernel of an idea but honestly, I felt it might have been better edited at novelette or even short story length. The last twenty-five pages of Jim's searching for what he couldn't find seemed to stretch as long as the corridors of Ozymandias Books. That said, I enjoyed the novella in spite of this, and found myself with the desire to run my fingers over the spines of all my childhood books that I still have, and whisper that they, unlike Ambush in Apache Canyon are not yet lost to time.

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here are me honest musings . . .

i met a traveller in an antique land (Connie Willis)
Title: i met a traveller in an antique land
Author: Connie Willis
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication Date: TODAY!! (hardback/e-book)
ISBN: 978-1596068766
Source: NetGalley

The cover drew me in and three things convinced me to read this book:
1) Connie Willis wrote the doomsday book and it was seriously one of the best books I have ever read ;
2) It is a Subterranean Press book and they do great work; and
3) The story takes place in a bookstore.

I loved this quick paced novella by Connie Willis. It actually feels at first like yer reading a true-life account. Then the protagonist enters Ozymandias Books. It is no ordinary bookstore. The books seem to be shelved with no organization, there are no prices in any of the books, and the store goes on forever. As Jim enters further into the bookstore and learns more about its function, his idea of the disposability of the physical book begins to change. In an era where the e-book is a popular form, those of us readers who cling to our beloved physical copies of childhood favourites and wish we could visit the lost Library in Alexandria will highly enjoy this story of Connie Willis. She captures a moment where changing technology and nostalgia collide and makes ye think due to her masterful writing.

This be the last read in me April BookBum Club Challenge! Much thanks to the BookBum Club for giving me the incentive to finally read this wonderful “short and sweet” book (168 pgs). Day four – challenge complete! Arrrr!

So lastly . . .
Thank you Subterranean Press!

Netgalley had this to say about the novel:

Jim is in New York City at Christmastime shopping a book based on his blog—Gone for Good—premised on the fact that “being nostalgic for things that have disappeared is ridiculous.” Progress decides for people what they need and what’s obsolete. It’s that simple. Of course, not everyone agrees. After Jim bombs a contentious interview with a radio host who defends the sacred technology of the printed, tangible book, he gets caught in a rainstorm only to find himself with no place to take refuge other than a quaint, old-fashioned bookshop.

Ozymandias Books is not just any store. Jim wanders intrigued through stacks of tomes he doesn’t quite recognize the titles of, none with prices. Here he discovers a mysteriously pristine, seemingly endless wonderland of books—where even he gets nostalgic for his childhood favorite. And, yes, the overwhelmed and busy clerk showing him around says they have a copy. But it’s only after Jim leaves that he understands the true nature of Ozymandias and how tragic it is that some things may be gone forever…

From beloved, multiple-award-winning, New York Times best-selling author Connie Willis comes I Met a Traveller in an Antique Land, a novella about the irreplaceable magic of books.

To visit the author’s website go to:
Connie Willis - Author

To buy the novel please visit:
i met a traveller in an antique land - Book

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Previous BookBum Club Monthly Reviews
March 2018 – “And the award goes to – pick a book that has won an award!”

Previous Log Entries for this Author
crosstalk (On the Horizon – Sci-Fi eArc)